Quantitative texture measurement apparatus and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10048232-B2
Application number	US-201615380622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2016
Priority date	Sep 24, 2015
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

A photo acoustic non-destructive measurement apparatus and method for quantitatively measuring texture of a food snack is disclosed. The apparatus includes a laser generating tool, an acoustic capturing device, and a data processing unit. The laser generating tool directs a laser towards a food snack placed on a surface and creates pressure waves that propagate through the air and produce an acoustic signal. The acoustic capturing device records and forwards the signal to a data processing unit. The data processing unit further comprises a digital signal processing module that processes the received acoustic signal. A statistical processing module further filters the acoustic signal from the data processing unit and generates a quantitative acoustic model for texture attributes such as hardness and fracturability. The quantitative model is correlated with a qualitative texture measurement from a descriptive expert panel. Texture of food snacks are quantitatively measured with the quantitative acoustic model.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-destructive fingerprinting method for identifying a food product, the method comprising the steps of:
a) striking the food product with a laser from a laser generator;
b) generating an acoustic signal from the food product based on the striking;
c) capturing the acoustic signal with an acoustic capturing device;
d) forwarding the acoustic signal to a data matching unit;
e) measuring a food property number of the food product with a photo acoustic model created using the forwarded acoustic signal;
f) comparing the food property number with an entry in a matching table; and
g) identifying the food product based on the entry in the matching table.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the food product is a starch based food snack.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the food product is a potato chip.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the acoustic capturing device is configured to capture frequencies in the acoustic signal; the frequencies range from 0 to 500KHz.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the acoustic capturing device is configured to capture energy density in the acoustic signal within a range of 15mJ/mm 2 to 700 mJ/mm 2 .

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the food property number is a texture attribute.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the food property number is selected from a group comprising: moisture, oil content, slice thickness, brittleness, or solids content.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the food property number is a combination of food properties comprising: moisture, oil content, slice thickness, brittleness, or solids content.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the matching table is maintained in a database.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprises the step of differentiating similar food snacks based on subtle differences in the measured food property number of the food snacks.

Assignees

• Frito Lay North America Inc

Inventors

• Bai Ou
• Bourg Jr Wilfred Marcellien
• Fagan Scott
• Michel-Sanchez Enrique
• Mirza Shahmeer Ali
• Richardson Scott G
• Shao Chen C

Classifications

• G01N29/2418 Primary

  using optoacoustic interaction with the material, e.g. laser radiation, photoacoustics (photoacoustic cells G01N21/1702; measuring characteristics of vibrations by using radiation-sensitive means G01H9/00; acousto-optical conversion techniques for short-range imaging G01S15/8965; sound-producing devices using laser bundle G10K15/046) · CPC title

• G01N2291/0289

  Internal structure, e.g. defects, grain size, texture · CPC title

• G01N2291/02466

  Biological material, e.g. blood · CPC title

• G01N33/10

  Starch-containing substances, e.g. dough · CPC title

• G01N29/12

  by measuring frequency or resonance of acoustic waves {(measuring frequency or resonant frequency of mechanical vibrations or acoustic waves in general G01H1/06, G01H3/04, G01H13/00; acoustic resonators G10K11/04; vibration or shock testing of structures G01M7/00)} · CPC title